The musings of a former office worker stuck in his house applying for jobs, when he would rather be out on the water.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Let's Get Serious for a Minute

Mark Twain is one of the greatest American authors of all time. I don't care who you are, or what you read, you have to respect what Mark Twain has done for American literature. Which is why news that I heard yesterday has gotten me a little worried about where our society is headed.

They are taking a word out of the book. A word which I won't wrote, since as a white guy I can't say it. And I refuse to * out letters. Or write the first letter of the word and then -word. But you know what word it is. It was in common usage at the time. Everyone, black and white used it. It was as integral a part of language as the word like is for Valley girls.

But the powers that be at NewSouth publishing are taking the word out Huckleberry Finn. And replacing it with the word slave. Not only is this ridiculous, but it doesn't make sense. For those who have read the book, try to recall when the word in question is used. Now replace it with slave. It just doesn't make sense. It will not read correctly.

I have heard people say that this version is for children, and the reason the word was removed is to protect their delicate young sensibilities. If I may be so bold, that's bullshit. Young kids today hear the same word out of the mouths of rappers, friends, and random people walking down the street every day.

The only reason to take this word out of this book is because it was written by a white guy. 125 years ago. But, Political Correctness has once again grabbed hold of something that should be held sacred, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, and destroyed for all the little snowflakes out there.

All right there, I'm done. serious rant over. Here's a funny picture to lighten your day.
And I apologize for the cursing.

2 comments:

Oh how I hate political correctness. It's a shame to erase the truth of something for a reason like that. I am of the belief that for a lot of literature, certain kinds of talking are okay if they are true to the character saying them, and the reader will notice if you're sugarcoating someone's speech. So if you write about a fisherman, you're going to have some bad language in your story, or you're going to have to get around it somehow by using a lot of phrases like "he cursed." Course, the word you're talking about WASN'T a curse then... I hope that there will still be copies of the true manuscript for sale, and if not then I intend to buy myself a copy while I still can.

Changing art for the sake of political correctness is so sad :( And I agree with you, the fact that Mark Twain was a white guy totally has something to do with it. Nobody's editing the n word out of Fredrick Douglass's biography.